Aerobraking vs Direct Entry, and Humans
It's fine for a robotic spacecraft to spend Months reducing its orbit energy and lowering its velocity, then finally descending under more optimal conditions, but for a Human mission, you have issues of consumables and radiation exposure during an extended orbit dwell time. These will add to the launch mass of the primary mission.
OTOH, the risk level of direct entry systems is still WAY too high for humans. A lot of development work is needed. (I did chuckle at Val Kilmer and co. landing by airbag in "Red Planet")